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Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Sony Xperia Z manages to marry a dust- and waterproof design with a stunning 5-inch full HD display and powerful 1.5GHz quad-core processor for a truly super-phone experience.

Carrying IP55 and IP57 certificates, you can take the Xperia Z for a dip in fresh water up to 1 metre for 30 minutes, meaning a trip into the bath or a slip into the toilet shouldn't end your phone's existence.

You can also rest easy when you next head to dustier climates as these are no problem for the tough Sony Xperia Z, which laughs in the face of such danger.

Festival-proof

And if all that wasn't enough, if you were to drop your Xperia Z in the mud at a festival, the smartphone can easily handle a tap of running water to get it clean again.

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Couple this stand-out durability with a super-slim 7.9mm chassis, reflective glass surface and a wealth of features under the hood and you'll realise how the Sony Xperia Z can deliver the ultimate smartphone viewing and performance experience.

I put the Sony Xperia Z through its paces in the video below, including its water-resistant abilities.

iMOBILE DREAMZReports are coming in that Apple could be set to renege on another strategy and finally build a cheap iPhone.

The usually-reliable Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has been researching a lower-end iPhone, something it's been looking at for three years, according to people "briefed in the matter".

However, the plans are now "progressing", and would see the aluminium casing of the iPhone 5 shorn and a cheaper polycarbonate exterior used in its place.

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Zombie iPhone

In the same manner as the iPad mini, which repurposed a lot of the iPad 2internals, the cheap iPhone would use bits of older handsets to see it sold at a lower price point in new markets.

The move would be a change in stance for the Cupertino brand, which has previously used its older handsets as the budget alternative to whatever flagship is being sold. However, even the iPhone 4 still costs a horrendously high amount for a handset that's nearly three years old.

There's also the issue of catering for the next wave of smartphone users: the emerging markets are now moving to smartphones and can't afford the high prices Apple charges to preserve its profit margins.

Make it bigger, make it cheaper

Digitimes, that ever reliable news source, is claiming that Apple is building a budget model just for China, which would feature a larger 5-inch screen. Such a move would make sense in a way, given that Apple hasn't gained as much traction in this key territory as it has in other areas.

It's reported that Samsung is considered a more popular brand in this region, with models like the Galaxy Note 2 performing well among the youth. Tim Cook has also been spotted headed out to this regio - but then again he could simply be a fan of authentic Chinese cuisine.

The iPad mini showed that Apple was willing to bend on previous stances regarding its products - but would you be willing to buy a cheaper iPhone if it meant you knew you were getting a substandard experience compared to the cooler kids?

The Alcatel One Touch Idol is one of a trio of new smartphones from the once-French firm which are pushing towards the top end of the mobile market.

A less powerful understudy to the One Touch Idol Ultra, the Idol slides in with a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 8MP camera and Android Jelly Bean.

This is all squeezed into a slender 7.9mm chassis and Alcatel is claiming the One Touch Idol is the lightest smartphone in the world in its category, tipping the scales at 110g.

We're not too sure what category Alcatel is referring to, but we can confirm that the handset does feel very light – shocker.

It also feels pretty cheap thanks to the low quality plastic which has been used to keep the weight down, and that detracts from the experience. It's like having a toy in your hand.

On the right side there's a volume rocker switch and a microSIM port, while on the flip side there's a slot for a microSD card to build on the lack lustre 4GB inside the One Touch Idol.

Up top you'll find a headphone jack and the power/lock key which required quite a bit of pressure to register our prod, meaning we had to grip the One Touch Idol tightly to stop it popping out of our hand.

Android 4.1.1 looks good on the 4.7-inch, 540 x 900 display and while it's not HD it is bright and colourful - although Alcatel has tweaked the icons to its own design which we're not big fans of.

The Alcatel One Touch Idol couldn't make up its mind if it wanted to offer a fluid or laggy user experience with Android running smoothly most of the time, but broken up by short periods of unexplained slow down - making it all a bit jarring.

It's difficult to tell how much exposure the Alcatel One Touch Idol will get in various regions and it could well fall under many people's radar.

The One Touch Idol doesn't blow us away, nor does it completely disappoint - it's a middle of the road smartphone which will struggle to stand out in the crowded mobile market, even with its array of nine colour options.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton may have gotten top billing for Samsung's keynote address at CES 2013, but the South Korean company didn't skimp on offering up some innovation news in the form of flexible OLED smartphone displays.

Stephen Woo, president of Samsung, was joined by Brian Berkeley, senior vice president of Samsung Display, to show off the new screen tech.

Called "Youm," the bendable OLED lineup uses thin plastic instead of glass, turning the display into pliable and almost unbreakable screen.

Berkeley showed off a curvaceous prototype, one with wrap-around screen that took the display, including any content on it, around the edges of the device.

Display future ahead

Microsoft CTO Eric Rudder later hopped onstage as well to show off a prototype Windows Phone with the flexible tech, one that bent into a wavy strip and demoing, in Woo's words, the possibilities for Samsung partners to create screens with shapes completely up to users' whims.

Putting a name to its display tech is certainly a step in the right direction for Samsung in bringing this pliable brand of OLED screens to consumers.

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While we don't expect the screen to show up on public-ready phones soon, it's something Samsung wants to keep on the radar so that when the time does come, we'll be ready for it.

The company also announced that it's developing a 10.1-inch LCD panel that will use 25 percent less energy than the current iteration without sacrificing any of the resolution. We'll provide more follow-up on that development as soon as it becomes available.